- Andrew, wanna get some ribs?
- Yes.
- Hey, that was easy.
Alright, let's get some ribs.
Oh wait, tomorrow, I'm busy today, sorry.
- Ah (beep).
- American barbecue, arguably the best barbecue.
Brisket, pork shoulder.
- There's lots of cuts of meat.
We're focusing on ribs.
Today on Worth It,
we're going to be trying 3 barbecue rib spots.
At three drastically different price points
to find out which one is the most worth it, at its price.
- Worth it.
- We must be caveat at this with the fact
that we are doing this in Los Angeles.
- Los Angeles has some very good barbecue.
- It does, it's not the South.
Turns out, there's a lot of great barbecue, in Long Beach?
- And if you don't know where Long Beach is,
look on a map (chuckles).
(jazz music)
- [Neil] Hey guys, my name is Neil Strawder,
also known as BigMista,
of BigMista's Barbecue and Sammich Shop.
Barbecue is originally about taking a bad piece of meat
and making something wonderful out of it.
We're doing better quality meat
and creating something amazing.
- How would you define your particular brand of barbecue.
- People assume that because I'm from Texas,
I cook Texas style barbecue.
There is some Texas influence but I've learned
from people all over the country.
It's BigMista style.
I take whole spare ribs, trim them, add our rub on it,
which is called BigMista's Perfect Pork Rub.
- [Steven] Is that a secret rub?
- Yes, you wanna know what the secret is?
Salt.
- (all laughing) Salt.
- And it goes in the smoker for
about three and a half, four hours.
- [Andrew] And what kinda smoke
are you putting in those ribs?
- What we cook on it's called a pellet smoker,
it holds 240 pounds of meat.
We're using pecan and cherry, smoke is an ingredient,
you know, it's like paprika or salt.
It should blend with the other ingredients.
It's temperature goes down,
it'll shoot some of these pellets down into
what's called a little fire pod.
And there's a convection fan that blows the smoke
and the heat down across the meat.
- More traditional barbecuers,
do they shy away from this technology?
- It used to be considered cooking on the dark side.
You know, you have to cut logs
and burn them down into coals.
I don't know about y'all,
but I don't wanna do all that work, I just wanna eat.
We have regular sauce, then we have the spicy sauce.
It'll make your lips tingle but it won't blow your head off.
That cool with you?
- Yeah, I can do spicy 'cause later.
- The spicy does you.
- Yeah.
(Andrew laughs loudly)
- See this off on the side?
Dip it, pour it on top.
What do you think I should do here?
- It's barbecue, just eat it.
- Okay, got it.
- [Andrew] My old friend, Shasta.
- Cheers.
That's not bad.
- I like cream soda.
That was always my favorite as a kid.
This rib looks slightly bigger so I'm gonna take it.
Cheers. (Steven clicks his tongue)
(jazz music)
- Wow, clean off the bone but still holding together.
I love the rub, it has a very satisfying crust
and it's a little bit spicy.
- When I think barbecue, I think ribs, drooling with sauce.
When you have great smoke, this is perfect as it is.
- I've always thought it was kinda like nonsense the way
that dogs chew on bones.
Like what are they doing?
Like why is that fun for you?
But for the first time in my life I'm like.
I kinda know what you mean guys.
(Steven laughs)
- Rib break here for the beans.
Oh my god, this is mine.
- Get off of me.
- This is all mine.
There's a lot of sugar in here.
- There's also a lot of pork in here.
This is like a stew.
You wanna just break that in half, break bread.
(gentle rock music)
Barbecue is the best food, yes.
- I knew you were gonna say that, jinx, double jinx.
You can't talk anymore, I get to eat everything.
I'm going spicy sauce.
You see that? Oh.
Cheers.
(jazz music)
You're gonna need to give me a moment.
I'm gonna, I gotta eat this this way.
- Just censor Steven's face.
- Woo!
(Steven coughs)
- Yes die, leave the food for me.
Oh!
That was the winner.
Stop watching the episode now.
- BigMista threw us a bone.
- In the middle of shooting he revealed
that he had planned a BBQ fact for us.
This is what he said.
- Now I've seen you guys do your thing before.
I want to jump in with this.
Rib Fact!
(all laughing)
- Alright.
- They're generally four types of ribs
that you see in-store.
You're regular spare ribs, the St. Louis cut rib,
your baby backs, and your country-style ribs.
First thing, country-style ribs are not ribs.
They actually come from the pork butt.
Bonus rib fact!
The pork butt is actually not the pork butt.
It is not from the pig's butt,
it's actually from the shoulder.
- I didn't not know that did you know that?
- The pig is a confusing animal.
It's magical but confusing.
- Let's just react to that fact now.
Wow, so those are the (laughs)
(both laughing)
(smooth music)
- My name is Rory Herrmann I'm the executive chef,
here at Barrel and Ashes.
I think the most important thing about barbecue
and you have to remember this is it's slow and low.
We start our fire at about three in the morning.
And we'll let that burn 'til about 4:00 or 4:30
before the ribs will even go in there.
- I'm jealous of your neighbors,
they must be asleep at night somewhere around four
in the morning they start smelling barbecue smoke.
- Today we're using a Duroc rib,
it's a little bit darker of a meat.
Has a little bit more blood in it.
That way if we cook it slow and low,
it contains a lot of moisture.
And we season it very simply with just Kosher salt
and Tellicherry black pepper which we hand grind.
We really want it to taste like the great meat that it is
and the smoke that it is.
We use Red Oak specifically
because it's a little bit denser of a wood.
And we'll cook our ribs for about five hours
at two hundred and twenty degrees.
After that cooking process,
we use a process called crutching it.
We'll wrap and allow them to rest for about an hour.
What that does is allow the moisture
to come back into the rib,
the juices and flavor within it.
And then we have a mop sauce.
It's what we actually brush the ribs
with right before we touch them on the grill.
Which consists of Arkansas city barbecue sauce,
molasses, some chili flakes,
a little bit of mustard and red wine vinegar.
Just to touch on that grill and get a little bit
of tackiness and a little bite to it.
- So how much is the full rack of ribs here?
- 36 dollars, half rack is 19.
Almost everybody that orders the half rack
turns around and goes we're gonna need another half.
(all laughing)
Might as well just order the whole rack to begin with.
- [Steven] Tell me about your drink.
- It's a barrel aged bourbon drink.
You really effed up by always being the driver.
- Somebody's gotta DD. (glass clanging)
Cheers.
- That was so very aggressive.
Shall I carve you a rib?
- Please.
- This is the first time we've had ribs
that are dressed up with a little sauce.
- Cheers.
- Mm.
- That's my winner.
- Oh, this is a much more a really seasoned rib.
And I like that a lot.
- So the slow cooking here,
it's a lot longer than BigMista's.
It definitely pays off, the meat is really loose.
- It's more aggressive smoke flavor.
Personally I kind of like that.
- One of our most famous sides is the Hoe Cake.
It's our version of corn bread made to order.
Take a hot cast iron pan and we pour that batter into it.
Into the wood oven and we hit it with maple honey butter,
malt and salt, and green onions,
a little cracked black pepper.
Comes sizzling at the table and let me tell ya,
you can't miss that with barbecue.
- [Andrew] That's the one, yeah.
- This kinda looks like flan.
- Yeah, it has like a really nice soft texture.
(cello music)
- Oh.
- This is really good.
It's really like a creme brulee cornbread.
- Holy crap and the scallions on top.
In China's Cuisine, there's a scallion pancake.
- Yes.
- This is like that but..
- Cornbread, yeah.
- Dessert version of it.
I think Adam should try this right now while it's hot.
(Andrew and Steven laugh)
- [Andrew] Rib tips.
- Ooh!
Oh!
(Steven groans)
That's like a delicacy.
- Oh god.
I'm having a full body experience with this pork.
- This is making me uncomfortable.
Okay.
- The next location of barbecue is gonna have
to wait until another day. (belches)
Nice.
- Not nice.
(Andrew groans)
- Again, I'm feeling a little uncomfortable
with you making noise, closing your eyes.
I can't be here now, anymore.
That's how you know it's good.
- What do you think human ribs taste like?
- Depends on the human.
What do you think human anything taste like?
- BBQ Fact!
- What do you think the longest barbecue
in terms of time wise for a single person barbecuing.
- 96 hours.
- The answer is 80 hours.
- Oh, I was close.
- You were close.
He cooked 1,000 hot dogs, 200 pieces of corn,
a hundred and four pieces of chicken,
500 burgers and 526 sausages.
- How many ribs do humans have?
- In a rack of pork ribs, you get about 14 I believe.
(soft scratching)
Do all mammals have the same number of ribs?
- I counted 11.
(ding)
- You know how a giraffe has the same number
of vertebrae as a human, in their neck.
- No.
- That's a fact.
- How's that possible?
- They're just really big.
(piano music)
- Hey, I'm Daniel Weinstock.
That's my partner, Mike Garrett.
We're the owners of Maple Block Meat Co.
Today we have a full rack of wood smoked spare ribs.
- We've always had a passion and love for barbecue.
We had been influenced and introduced to some stuff
in Texas and we're just blown away by their process
and their attention to detail.
We believed if could bring anything close to that,
here to Los Angeles, we'd be great success.
- [Daniel] We get them in, we inspect them first.
We got an eye for the general shape and size and marbling.
Trim those, our rubs are simple,
a few ingredients with the right ratios.
They'll smoke for about four hours with peach wood.
Every barbecue culture uses a wood
that's indigenous to their areas.
Burns nice and clean, gets nice and sweet.
- [Mike] And it's unique to us, I don't think anybody else
use peach wood as their primary wood.
So it's all a commitment to the flavor.
- [Daniel] Come out beautiful,
given the right amount of time to rest.
- So your Harvey station is here?
- We've always wanted this to be kind of the meat alter.
As you walk in the door, it's the first thing you see.
It's got almost the sushi bar effect.
- Is it hard running a barbecue restaurant?
The temptation everyday, just.
- We do the quality check, you know,
costs a lot but we're dedicated meat heads for sure.
- We'd help you out by the way.
Give us a call if you need some help.
- [Mike] Designated eaters, yeah.
- This a hand made strawberry soda and a classic beer
for all barbecue with Shiner Bock.
- Thank you very much.
- To barbe-me into barbecue.
I love pickles because they are the perfect little snack.
It's a food and a drink.
I like that the rib tip is still attached.
That fatty, chewy, morsal, dangling off the end.
- Let's cross swords.
(metallic cling)
(piano music)
Holy crap.
- That is one of the nicest smoke tastes.
It's so light, you're at summer camp
and you're heading to the nightly camp fire
but it's still pretty far away.
But you catch the first whiffs of it.
- Yeah, hit me with some sauces.
- Here you go, you want some more?
- Yes please.
Ribs, we've learned, not a clean snack.
(piano music)
("Mm" in unison)
- Gently sweet, it's got like this molasses sweetness to it.
- Everything is tender and gentle and feels like...
- Subtle.
- Being wooed.
You wanna try some sides?
- Are you gonna wait for me?
- Yeah.
(soft piano)
This food gets me, it knows what I wanna eat.
- Yeah because it's good food.
This food gets me too.
- I get you.
- No you don't.
Let's try a biscuit.
Do you wanna share half of one?
(Steven grumbles)
I wanna save a little biscuit for Adam.
(exhales) it's all about that biscuit smell.
- Alright, let's cheers it. Ready?
- I'm not done buttering my biscuit.
(soft piano)
Holy shi- (beep).
- (laughs) I was just about to say, oh my god.
You have to try this right now, Adam.
This is insane.
- Yeah?
- That's the best biscuit I've ever had.
What? No!
Not yet!
- How is that?
Steven stop doing that.
- It's a bird.
- There's a bird above us and it might take a sh- (beep).
- Oh.
- Okay, it's gone.
- We're gonna go with just the ribs.
So based on the ribs alone,
which barbecue spot was the most worth it at its price.
- Barrel and Ashes probably had
the biggest flavor of the day.
And they were kinda the perfect TV ad of a barbecue rib.
- This was the worst idea.
- What?
- Eating popsicles while doing a wrap up
'cause your literally at the mercy of the melting.
This is his idea by the way.
- But my favorite and my worth it winner was
Neil's from BigMista's Sammich Shop.
They were perfectly balanced
and it was a really powerful rub.
They were just perfect to me.
- The smokey flavor of Maple Block was probably my favorite
but my worth it winner goes to Barrel and Ashes.
It's reasonably priced, perfect for a date,
perfect for a family outing, perfect to not break your bank.
And those rib tips.
- Adam what is your winner?
Nothing compliments delicious meat on a bone
than delicious frozen desert on a stick.
And that's why we're eating popsicles.
- Mine kinda looks like a turd now.
- Way to...
Bring it all back down.
- I'mma finish mine, here we go.
(slurps) Oh.
- [Andrew] Brain freeze?
I know your weakness Steven.
It's the brain freeze.
- It's not a weakness, it's just so cold.
Worth it.
- [Andrew] Oh yes!